1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the provision of services in communications networks and, in particular, to software systems to ensure compatibility between network subsystems providing end-user services and the like. More particularly still, the present invention provides a universal system architecture and method independent of the nature of any particular subsystem, service or device. In a more particular preferred application, the compatibility system comprises a family of software packages that allow real-time interworking among standalone network services, providing linkage between functionalities such as voice mail, directory assistance, interactive voice response and internet services. While this application is for telecommunication services, the universal system may interwork standalone information processing services. It has unique value where stable real-time performance is required and interaction among the services needs explicit context-sensitive arbitration.
2. Related Art
In the present system environment, for example in telephony, a standalone service is a service which has been designed to provide certain, well-defined functionality. These standalone services are invoked and used; and may be called upon to implement a service. The stand alone devices, however, have no way of communicating with other standalone devices. Thus, devices and services are not integrated, and on the whole do not communicate (i.e. share data or resources) with each other. Where integration does occur it is ad hoc, with programmers designing specific solutions for specific problems, and normally provided by equipment manufacturers who sell a proprietary, one-vendor cluster of systems.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,396 issued Apr. 4, 1995 to Brennan entitled FEATURE INTERACTION MANAGER addresses the particular problem known in telephone systems as "feature interaction", where, as the number of available features offered within a telecommunication switching network increases, the possible (uncontrolled) interaction between the features becomes highly significant and a source of both potential confusion to the subscriber, as well as faults within the network. For this reason, feature managers are provided within the switching system which manage the functionality of each feature in such a way that the different aspects of the functionality are coordinated. A feature manager monitors each event which occurs and directs that event to the feature logic of the software block implementing a feature which requires that event for invocation and/or control. However, when more than one feature requires the same event, the situation becomes more complex and requires that access to certain features be suspended and/or prioritized when other features are in use by a subscriber. The solution is to interpose a feature interaction manager (FIM) between a telecommunications switching platform within a network and the feature logic providing call features to subscribers using the platform. Control is interposed within the interface between the detection of events within the switching system and the implementation of the telecommunications services by the feature logic in order to manage the interaction of various ones of a plurality of features provided to a subscriber. The system evaluates events within the network in order to isolate each feature from the other features and associates them only through the feature interaction manager.
In the field of information processing, International Application No. PCT/US95/15432 published Jun. 6, 1996 as No. WO 96/17296 and entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING A MESSAGE DRIVEN PROCESSOR IN A CLIENT-SERVER ENVIRONMENT is abstracted as follows:
A message driven processor operates as middleware between clients and back-end hosts or servers in a large client-server system to reduce the number of concurrent sessions required to be supported by the network and to allow a common client user interface to divergent back-end systems. High level requests from a client in support of a business function are translated into workflows which may involve multiple requests to back-end servers by the message driven processor. Information resulting from workflows and information retrieved from back-end servers may be integrated into a single reply message to the requesting client.